Final Live 519
by Cirdan the Civic
Summary: Ryousuke and Kyouichi go to a concert together.


Disclaimer: Initial D and its characters belong to Shigeno Shuichi.  
  
Note: This is AU. There may be time continuity errors with the series.  
  
  
  
Final Live 5.19  
  
Caller ID: Ryousuke. Kyouichi didn't want to pick up, but he did.  
  
"What?" Kyouichi said as roughly as he possibly could in such a short word.  
  
"This is Ryousuke."  
  
"I know. What do you want?"  
  
"Still sore about losing?" Kyouichi didn't dignify that with an answer. "Are you free tomorrow night?"  
  
"I have work."  
  
"I have an extra ticket to TMN's concert. Do you want to come?"  
  
TMN was Kyouichi's favorite band. (It was everyone's favorite band.) Exactly 10 years after the release of their first single, they'd announced the close of the TMN project. There would be one last concert, spanning two days. The first day had been tonight. Tomorrow night would be the last chance to see TMN perform live.  
  
But it was Ryousuke. Ryousuke had beaten his Evo just a month ago, and Kyouichi wasn't quite ready to let that drop.  
  
But TMN...  
  
"I'll call in sick," Kyouichi said at last.  
  
"Excellent. I've freed up my day as well. Meet me at Gunma U. at noon. We'll grab lunch then head out to Tokyo. Does that sound okay?" Ryousuke said.  
  
"Sounds fine."  
  
---  
  
They carpooled to Tokyo. Carpooled. It was unheard of for a Takahashi. Ryousuke didn't even carpool with his brother.  
  
What's more, they took the Evo, not the FC.  
  
Kyouichi had plenty of time to ponder this before the concert started, but once the first notes of "1974" started, Kyouichi completely forgot about his animosity towards Ryousuke. They were just two friends at a concert. It was great. Only TMN had the ability to bring people together like this. And Kyouichi was fonder of their newer songs than the older ones, so even though "Get Wild" had been played the night before, Kyouichi wasn't disappointed. The Carol suite was his favorite. They'd been 15, and Carol had been their first concert. It brought back all the dreams of those days, when they'd been too young to drive but studied all the car magazines. For months, it'd been their personal motto: Just one victory.  
  
Gods, it was great. Kyouichi couldn't help himself. He started to sing along: "Men's hot race... Wow wow!" He didn't give a flying fuck if Ryousuke thought he was being an idiot. Kyouichi felt great.  
  
And then, to his surprise, at the refrain, Ryousuke join in with him: "Just one victory now..." Kyouichi glanced at Ryousuke. Ryousuke actually smiled, and Kyouichi beamed right back at him. "Just one victory tonight..."  
  
The rest of the night passed in an unforgettable blur of music and friendship. Somewhere in the back of his head, Kyouichi understood exactly what this was. It was the last concert. It would be the last time they met as friends, perhaps the last time they met at all. Fine. The past was worth it though.  
  
The last song was, of course, the last single, "Nights of the Knife." All around them, women broke into tears. They didn't want the night to end. They didn't want TMN to end. But Kyouichi took it differently. It was the whole reason Ryousuke had brought him to this pricey concert. It was all in the opening line: "A new beginning is now." The song had only been released last month, on the very day that Kyouichi had lost to Ryousuke. But it wasn't the loss that was on Kyouichi's mind. All the radio stations had been playing this song, and Kyouichi had often played the CD single for hours at a time. It was a song of hope. At the first "dream on," Kyouichi felt Ryousuke turn from the stage briefly to sing at him. At the second "dream on," they sang into each other's faces with wide grins on their faces, and they almost broke into laughter rather than continue to karaoke.  
  
But they managed to bring the song home with Utsu: "We are going to, we are going to make a brand new day."  
  
Tokyo Dome fell into dramatic darkness as Utsu hung his head. Then the lights came back on amidst deafening cheering. After the final bows, Ryousuke leaned over and said, "There will be an encore."  
  
Kyouichi knew that he wasn't referring to the concert and smiled. 


End file.
